Lovable + Stripe: how do you sell online with a Lovable site?

Lovable frontend → `create-checkout` edge function → Stripe Checkout → client redirect to /payment-success or /payment-canceled. Stripe webhook → `stripe-webhook` edge function → database update.

All sensitive logic lives in edge functions: no Stripe secret key ever touches the client. Lovable provides a Stripe integration assistant that scaffolds these functions and success/cancel pages, but webhook signature verification and business update logic still need to be written and tested.

Stripe offers several building blocks suited to different business models: Payment Links for a one-off sale with no code, embedded Checkout for a customized funnel within the site, Billing for recurring subscriptions, Connect for marketplaces paying out third-party sellers.

Setup time and public fees vary significantly between options: a Payment Link can be created in minutes without a developer, while a Connect marketplace requires seller KYC onboarding and more complex fund-splitting logic.

Create your products and prices in the Stripe dashboard. Reference the price_id from the frontend. A subscriptions table in your database stores the status (active, past_due, canceled) returned by webhooks — this sync is essential to avoid granting access to a paid service that actually failed or was canceled.

For free trials, set trial_period_days on the price or on the Checkout session. Also plan for recurring payment failure handling (dunning) to limit involuntary churn.

Never trust a client-side redirect to /payment-success to grant access to paid content: a user can reach that URL without having paid. Only the Stripe webhook, verified via its signature (stripe.webhooks.constructEvent), should trigger the database update.

Validate server-side: the webhook signature with the dedicated secret, the actual amount paid (amount_total) compared against the expected price, processing idempotency (the same Stripe event can be sent more than once), and the real status of the session or subscription before granting access.

Stripe Tax automatically computes and collects VAT based on the buyer's country — required for B2C sales in the European Union, where the applicable rate depends on the final customer's country.

For intra-EU B2B, add VAT number collection and reverse charge: Stripe Tax can validate the VAT number via VIES and exempt the transaction if conditions are met. Invoices generated by Stripe include the basic mandatory fields, but validation with an accountant is still recommended for edge cases.

Paddle: Merchant of Record, simplifies global VAT by acting as the seller for tax collection. Useful for global sellers who do not want to handle multi-country tax themselves, at fees generally higher than Stripe's.

PayPal, Mollie, Lemon Squeezy: integrations possible via edge functions depending on the target market and local payment methods expected by customers (SEPA transfers, iDEAL in the Netherlands, etc.).

On the Lovable Web Agency site, the three packages (€990, €2,500, €10,000 excl. tax) are sold in one click via Stripe Checkout, with optional auth for order tracking.

The full funnel (session creation, redirect, webhook, success page) was integrated in a few hours thanks to the Lovable Stripe assistant, with server-side verification of the amount and webhook signature before any order confirmation.